Three For Lunch
by SheaHeyKid
Summary: What exactly is Jim thinking as he watches the two women in his life the one he's dating and the one who broke his heart start to become friends?
1. Chapter 1

_I don't own these characters or their stories, I'm just playing around with them a little. What's going through Jim's mind as the two women in his life start becoming friends. One-timer._

Boy they sure seem chummy together, Jim thought to himself as he looked over from his desk across the office at his current girlfriend and his former crush chatting away at God knows what. It was not a possibility that he had considered before, that they might become friends. But why not? It made sense, in fact. They were both very cool a very friendly. Neither of them was afflicted with that very common womanly need to be catty toward other women. In Karen's case it was because she was supremely confident in herself, as she had a right to be. She was intelligent, beautiful and funny. She did not need to compete with other women, but if she did she'd win hands down 99 times out of 100. In Pam's case, it wasn't so much confidence, because Jim always sensed that she could use more of that. But she had an innate kindness about her – it was what had attracted him to her early on, he had decided once – and she just didn't have it in her to be cold to someone, not for very long anyway.

So there they were, laughing at Karen's desk. Pam leaning against it, her back to him, Karen looking up at her like Pam was saying the most amazingly witty and insightful thing ever said. Jim wanted to throw up. This was definitely not a good thing, his gut told him. He had spent the last six months trying to put distance between himself and that night with Pam. First it was physical distance, and the 300 miles between Stamford and Scranton might as well have been 3,000 because it felt that way to him and he could tell from the very first time he'd ended up on the phone with her that time that it felt that way to her too. She even thought they were in different time zones.

When the branches had merged, he'd been ready to quit altogether. It would have been a panic move, he knew, to throw away his second raise and his second promotion in six months just to avoid going back. Even now it didn't sound like that bad an idea, not when he let himself think about what he was going back to, to think about that night and how much it hurt. So he'd looked for a shield, a defense against the inevitable pain of being exposed to someone he'd loved and poured out his heart to only to be rejected. He couldn't blame Pam for not loving him back. You can't choose who you love. But who wanted to be reminded of the embarrassment of their worst rejection day after day after day. But when Karen had told him she was seriously considering the transfer, it presented an opportunity, one he wasn't proud to admit he took. At first he advised her to go to New York, that someone like her didn't belong in a hick town like Scranton, Pa., when the Big Apple waited just 45 minutes down the road. But he reconsidered as soon as he realized the signals she was sending him about how she felt about him and how much better it would be to go back to his old digs at with her on his arm. Well, she wouldn't be on his arm literally, but figuratively it seemed like the best way to defuse any of the pitying stares from his coworkers who may or may not know how badly he had been dumped by the redhead at reception. As for the redhead herself, he felt no anger, no animosity. He didn't know what he felt. That was the honest truth. But if he could understand what was going on deep inside him when it came to Pam, he'd realize he felt exactly the same as he did about her on Casino Night. Those feelings were just buried beneath a ton of good and bad memories and his determination to move on and reinvent himself as a hardworking career guy who doesn't spend his days playing practical jokes and pining after unattainable women.

But he didn't realize any of that. What he did realize was that Karen was incredibly attractive. They had connected, too. She was fun to be with, and she was nice to him. She gave him a ride home when he was too drunk to pedal his bicycle straight – what was he thinking that night? – and he had shown her that he was no corporate suck-up by spending a day on the trail of some hard-to-find potato chips when she was struggling with her sales figures. If Pam had never happened, he told himself, he and Karen would be a perfect fit. That nagging doubt in the back of his head told him there was no way to imagine if Pam had never happened. He had gotten pretty good at ignoring nagging doubts in the last six months, though. And things were going well. He and Karen were happy together.

Pam seemed to have moved on with life after Roy. She looked good, great actually, he thought. She was taking those art classes and she was styling her hair and dressing nicer than ever. Jim was happy for her. Even if she didn't have the same feelings for him as he used to have for her, he was glad his old friend's life was looking up. He felt like they could peacefully coexist in the same office now that they'd put so much distance between themselves and that night. But he hadn't counted on the two of them becoming friends. What if Pam told Karen about Casino Night? What if Karen told Pam that Jim had never mentioned any of it?

"Hey stranger, when you wake up maybe you want to join me in the break room for a ham sandwich and a can of Crystal cola?" Karen said to him.

He was staring right at her, or actually, right past her. He had zoned out and didn't even realize she had walked right up to him. He started to blush with embarrassment.

"I, uh, yeah, that sounds great," he said, fumbling to regain his bearings. "I just have to make a sale calls. It won't take long."

"Well, Pam and I are going to start without you," she said. "We're both starving, and you know the way there. It's the door over there."

He laughed at her little sarcasm and watched her walk past his desk to reception behind him where Pam was shredding some papers. The two of them exchanged some under-their-breath comments that prompted Pam to chuckle and Karen to shake her head. Jim watched their banter out of the corner of his eye and wondered whether it would be possible for him to dig a hole under his desk and bury himself inside it.

Lunch with Pam and Karen. It did not sound good. Sure, they had all eaten together several times since the merger, but it was never a deliberate thing where the three of them had sat down together. It was usually Jim and Karen going into the break room together and finding Pam there with Kevin or Kelly. He hung up the phone on the sales call he didn't really have to make and pulled open his desk drawer. A tuna on white bread sat there, and all he could think was that he would really rather have a ham and cheese sandwich today. He wasn't even sure he liked tuna all that much anymore.

"It's pretty hot the way your girlfriends are hitting it off," Kevin said.

Jim looked up to see the big guy standing over his desk, smirking in the general direction of the break room where Pam and Karen were engrossed in conversation.

"Yeah, Kevin, that is pretty hot," Jim deadpanned. "But Pam's not my girlfriend."

"She almost was," Kevin said. "You should see if they're, you know, into each other."

"Yeah, I'll have to check that out, big guy," Jim said, grabbing his sandwich.

He shook his head as he walked over to have lunch with the one he was with and the one that got away from him. This couldn't end well, he thought to himself. It was his fault for not thinking things through, he knew. He could hear them laughing and gabbing before he even got halfway to the door. Here goes nothing, he thought.


	2. Chapter 2

Dec. 26, 2006

"Jim, did you know that Pam is showing her artwork in a gallery downtown? The opening is Friday night."

A mouthful of ham and cheese kept him from admitting that he knew this fact quite well. He'd caught the listing in the arts section of Sunday's Scranton Times. The name had jumped off the page at him, and he'd filed the information away. He doubted he'd go to the opening, but he planned to swing by a few days later to see the exhibit.

"You make it sound like it's just my paintings they're showing," Pam protested. "It's really not that big of a deal, I swear."

"It is a big deal, Pam," Karen said. "I can't draw or paint or do anything artistic to save my life. I think that is so cool that you're taking art classes, and in Manhattan of all places. All I do most weekends is laundry."

Jim sat there contemplating how to play this. He agreed with Karen. It was a big deal that Pam was showing her artwork in real gallery exhibit. In fact, Karen didn't know just how big a deal it was. A year ago the extent of Pam's artistic endeavors was her doodling between phone calls at the reception desk. Now she was taking classes at night and attending art seminars in New York City. Fancy New Beesly, as he'd called her once and had taken to thinking of her, was making big strides. He wanted to encourage her, but he didn't want to seem overeager.

"Well, I've got a load of delicates I simply must attend to, but I think that can wait until Saturday morning," Jim said. "What time is the opening Friday?"

"It's at 7:30," Karen answered before Pam could. "We should get everyone in the office to come, really pack the place."

"You guys, seriously, I appreciate the encouragement," Pam said. "I really do, but it's not like it's just my work that's on exhibit. It's my entire class, and the exhibit is a temporary thing. The museum is letting us set up easels in their reception area. It's total amateur hour, I promise."

"Jim, you've seen her drawings," Karen said. "Will you please tell her how amazingly talented she is?"

Jim turned and looked at Pam. He felt like there was a heat lamp aimed at his face. Was she blushing? He felt like time had stopped. Say something. But what? Of course she was amazingly talented. And amazingly beautiful. And just plain amazing. Don't say that, not in front of Karen. Oh God, this is not good.

The thoughts swirled in his head like a tornado. Pam looked down at her lunch just to break eye contact. Karen started to laugh.

"Sheesh, you can't think of one nice thing to say, Halpert?" she said.

"No, of course I can," he stammered. "Pam your drawings are great. I can't wait to see your exhibit."

Pam just looked up and smiled, a little uncomfortably but not enough for Karen to pick up on. At least she thought so.

"Well that was uncomfortable," Karen said. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say there was some kind of bad history between you two."

This time Pam spoke up first.

"What? No, there's nothing like that," she said.

"Relax, Pam, I'm just teasing," Karen said. "I forgot my sarcasm doesn't play well here in the heartland of Pennsylvania. I have to work on that. I know you guys are friends."

Jim was thinking again about ways he could dig a hole in which to bury himself. But the moment passed, and he figured the tension would pass with it. The thought still hung in his head as Roy walked into the lunchroom.

"Hello everybody," he said. "OK if I join you for lunch?"

This was the new Roy, Jim thought. Six months ago he grunted at people, including Pam sometimes. Now he said hello and spoke politely to people, and not just when Pam was around.

"Sure," Pam said, hardly looking up.

"What a morning," Roy said, unpacking a nonfat yogurt, a banana and some kind of sandwich on whole wheat bread. "We got a double shipment and had to turn it around before the next outgoing truck left. Business must be good up here. Is that because you're running sales now Halpert?"

"Don't give him a swelled head, Roy," Karen said while Jim just shrugged. "Don't forget there's been a 50 percent increase in the size of the sales team. Plus you've got me out there setting the pace and picking up the slack for you Scranton-ites."

"Oh really?" Jim said. "Never mind the fact that you're one of us now, but I'd hardly say you're setting the pace when you need me to step in and close major deals with certain municipal supply managers who find you're Connecticut snobbery off-putting."

"That is so unfair," Karen said, throwing a potato chip at Jim. "That woman was evil. And just because you were able to step in and sweet-talk her doesn't mean I don't get credit for doubling the sales revenue Dwight ever made from that account."

"True, but Dwight never called a client a frigid witch, either," Jim shot back.

"She called me a hussy!" Karen said. "I can't believe you're taking her side."

Pam and Roy watched the exchange and said nothing. For Roy it was because he had no idea what they were talking about and only came by to spend some time near Pam. She, on the other hand, was cringing on the inside at how well they seemed to get along. But she'd never let it show, she swore to herself.

"So you guys are an item, huh?" Roy observed, cutting the banter to a screeching halt. "Very cool. I told you this guy would settle down, Pam."

"What was that?" Jim said, half-annoyed, half intrigued.

"Pammy and I used to talk about how you were single for so long," Roy said. "I told her guys aren't always up for a relationship the way women are. She used to say you needed to get out of Scranton to find the right girl, right Pammy?"

"Roy, that's rude," Pam said, glaring at him. "And that isn't what I meant, anyway."

"Well, you were probably right," Karen said, unsure of her place in this conversation, but eager to jump in. "He had to leave to find me, right?"

Jim smiled at her, but he was irked inside that Pam had once said that about him.

"I really have to get back to work," he said, avoiding looking at Pam now. "Can't let these Stamford transplants steal all the sales, right."

Pam just sat there, no longer glaring at Roy but just feeling sick to her stomach at the thought that the distance between her and Jim had just grown a little wider. For his part, Jim was feeling the same way. The only problem, as it always had been between them, was that neither knew the other was feeling exactly the same way.


	3. Chapter 3

_I hadn't revisited this in a while, so I thought I'd pick it up and take the next chapter on a small detour just to explore what people are thinking. There is a museum opening in the near future, so don't worry._

Jim pulled the van up in front of the house where Karen had parked her Miata in the driveway. He put it into park and slammed his foot down hard on the emergency brake.

"You trying to put your foot through the floor," Ryan said to him.

Karen recruited Ryan to help her move into her new apartment by asking him right in front of Kelly who gladly answered for him that he'd be more than happy to help a lady out. Karen was no fool, and neither was Kelly, who now had a pretty sure idea of her man's whereabouts for a good four or five hours on a Saturday.

"No, man, I just don't want this truck rolling down the street with all my girlfriend's belongings in the back," Jim said. "The E-brake's a little sticky."

"So that's still going on, huh?" Ryan said as he let himself out of the van.

"What was that?" Jim asked, but Ryan had already closed the door and was heading to the back to open up the rear compartment.

"So what's still going on? Me and Karen?" he asked Ryan once he reached the back of the rental truck. "Why do you ask?"

Ryan just looked at him a little confused and smiled.

"No reason," he said. "I just figured that now that you were back here in Scranton for what looks like the long term, well, you know?"

"No, I don't know," Jim said, obviously annoyed.

"You two just going to hang around and chat all day or are you going to move some furniture," Karen said, popping her head around from the other side of the van. "I've got some moving to do, and I'm not paying you to lollygag."

"You're not paying us," Ryan said without the tone that would suggest he was joking.

"Don't you worry, Howard," Karen said. "The sooner you get done here the sooner you can be back in the arms of your lady love."

She was good at knowing which of people's buttons to push, Jim thought. That's what made her a good saleswoman. She was always sure of herself, but not in a cocky way. She just never seemed to waste much time thinking about what she wanted. She knew and she went for it, even if it seemed a gamble. Well, he was gambling too, now, gambling that helping her move into an apartment two blocks from his wouldn't cramp he ever-evolving lifestyle too much. They'd been dating five weeks. They'd met his mom for lunch Wilkes-Barre two weeks before, but other than that neither had even met the other's family. And besides his roommate Mark, they hadn't even hung out with his friends at all. Now they were practically living together, no matter how much sense Pam had made when she argued otherwise.

Pam. She was right there with the right advice at the right time. It was weird how that had worked out. He'd thought she would have been hesitant to help him with his relationship. Since he'd returned he'd thought he'd picked up signs from her that she was feeling something she wasn't quite saying, feeling something about him. He'd caught her staring at him and Karen at least three times, and each time she'd tried to play it off. And for all her fancy new clothes and art classes, she never seemed that happy. He could tell that kind of thing about her. She even seemed to have reverted to her less-than fancy old clothes lately, too. Something was going on there, but judging by her willingness to help him iron things out with Karen, it probably had little to do with him.

He hoisted the end of a sofa loveseat and waited for Ryan to get a grip on the other end before backing it out of the van and carrying it across the lawn to the door.

"That baby converts into a daybed, so be careful which way you tip it," Karen said. "You don't want it converting on you on the stairs."

"You know the Scranton Yellow Pages list 14 different moving companies, and that doesn't include the dozens of man-with-van listings in the Scranton Pennysaver," Ryan observed.

"What a fun fact," Karen said. "You should save that for your next cocktail party."

She was prepared to go toe-to-toe with Ryan all day long. Kelly told her he wouldn't be in a good move. Kelly also said it would do him good to do something nice for someone else once in a while. The two women had had a long heart-to-heart girl talk almost as soon as Karen arrived in Scranton. Kelly understood well Ryan's reservations about their relationship. She also knew he was indecisive and insecure and wasn't really good at knowing a good thing when he saw it. He loved her more than he would even admit to himself sometimes, she knew. It was why she put up with him. At first Karen thought Kelly was the insecure one who need to grow up a little. After they'd talked a while, she realized Kelly knew what she was doing. And Karen had come to appreciate the way people – especially Ryan – underestimated Kelly's confidence and intelligence.

She wished she'd had such a good handle on her other new co-workers, Jim in particular. He could be so kind and funny and reassuring. He had the makings of a great manager with none of the cut-throat tendencies of a Josh or even an Andy. And he was so damn fine to look at, she thought. But there was a distance there. At first she thought maybe he was just the dark, brooding type. She realized that wasn't the case within a month of getting to know him. She'd since attributed it to his being in a new city with a new job and not knowing a soul. He'd come around a bit during his time in Stamford and revealed a different side of himself. He liked to play practical jokes, and he wasn't above helping out a co-worker in need. And he never took himself too seriously. That was when she started to fall hard for him. She thought the feelings were reciprocal until the branch closing was announced and he told her she should look for a job in New York. But he'd had a change of heart and urged her to come with him to Scranton. She knew he felt the same way. And they had a great thing going now, even if he had acted so weird about her moving into his neighborhood. There was that distance again that she didn't get.

Pam got it, though, she thought. Thank God for Pam, Karen thought. They were about the same age, and they had a lot in common even if Pam didn't seem to have a clue what she was doing with her career. That was an area Karen was determined to help her with. It was the least she could do to offer some professional pointers after Pam had helped her with Jim's sudden case of cold feet.

Karen wondered what it was Pam had said to Jim. Whatever it was, he'd had a complete change of heart from that morning. She wished she could get through to him so easily. But they'd only been together for a few weeks. Pam and Jim had worked together for years. They were probably friends, not that Jim ever mentioned her or anything. Just like a guy. Pam was probably this great friend to him, and he didn't even realize she existed. Well that was probably a good thing for her, Karen thought. If Jim had given Pam a second thought, they might have been an item. As it was, Halpert was hers now, and she'd get past his defenses and make him open up to her sooner or later. For now, she had an apartment to set up and a couple of movers who were slacking outside.


End file.
